Back(Alley) Story
by Wolfgrowl
Summary: "Look for four: the flightless to fall and darkness to gain, cold to lose and inferno to reign." A prophecy that would change their lives, eventually. But these four came together, not by an act of StarClan, but by the will of fate. For GlimmerIcewood. (Tie in to FROM THE ASHES)


Far from the Clans, and their prophecy, from Fable and his mountain, the city sprawled out.

For cats like the young gray tom walking the alley it was a dangerous place. He wore no collar and had no twoleg to go home to. And he swore no allegiance to the guild. He stayed close to the outskirts of town, almost where the forest was. Not the Skulk though, he was six moons old and he hoped to make it to twelve.

The sounds of voices made Carbunkle's blood chill and he ducked into a shadow, breath in his throat.

"Would you be quiet? They'll come back eventually!"

He crept forward, ears flat against his head.

In the harsh light of one of the few working street lights out here sat two kits. The fluffy white one was leaning back, away from the brown and white one.

"Listen Amarei just stop asking, and sit quietly," the brown and white one curled her tail around her paws, "they'll come back."

"But I'm hungry." The white one, Amarei, pressed against her, "and it's getting late."

He swallowed and moved forward, "hello?"

Amarei yelped and darted around the brown and white she-cat, who fluffed out her fur and growled at him.

He raised his tail in greeting, they were rather small, younger than him even.

"Sorry, just passing by, are you waiting for someone?" He hoped to any higher power that they weren't waiting for the guild.

"No one you need to worry about," the brown and white one showed him her teeth, which seemed yellow in the street light, "now leave us alone."

He shrugged, "okay, I just know where some food is…"

Amarei squeaked, and the other rolled her eyes, "sure follow the strange guy into the alley, see how that goes for you."

Carbunkle twitched his whiskers, seemed one of them had a lick of sense after all. "Relax, I can bring it to you."

"Aurane…"

He could see the defeat in Aurane's eyes, and flicked his tail, "then wait here."

"Fine but we're just waiting for our housefolk," Aurane warned him, "so you'll want to hurry."

/ / /

He'd dragged the bag of half eaten food to them, with no small amount of effort. Amarei tore into it like she'd been out here for moons. Aurane was more cautious, sniffing around before taking a bite.

Carbunkle was eating some too, when she finally asked, "so what's your name?"

"Uhh…" He paused, a piece of food slipping out of his mouth, "I'm uhh… it doesn't matter."

"Okay, mister It doesn't matter," Aurane narrowed her eyes, "why are you helping us?"

"No one else is going to," he admitted quietly, "you fend for yourself out here. You two are new and won't last if someone doesn't help you."

Amarei was staring at him with a serious expression, before she turned to Aurane and said, "I bet his name is Fluffy."

"Excuse me?" Carbunkle jerked back, "says you!"

The fluffy she-cat stuck out her tongue at him, "I'll look smooth and elegent when I grow up."

Aurane rolled her eyes, "so Fluffy," she meowed, "you live out here?"

"Yeah," Carbunkle scratched at one ear, "to be honest it's kind of lonely. You've at least got your friend here for company."

The two shared a look, before Aurane corrected, "sister. She's my sister."

Carbunkle felt a pang of longing for his own littermates, but nodded, "sorry, your sister. You two stick together until your twolegs come for you." The words tasted sour in his mouth, as he watched the two eat but maybe he was wrong. For their sake he hoped he was.

"Bye Fluffy!" Amarei called after him as he left the sisters by the light.

They were there the next night when Carbunkle came to check, the sisters huddled up together, eyes half-closed.

"Hey." He gently prodded Aurane with one paw.

"Square up mate!" The she-cat yelled before recognizing him.

"Do you two need more food?"

"We're okay," Amarei answered, still curled up, "a nice housefolk gave us some of her food earlier."

"No sign of your twolegs huh?" he asked, the sisters shook their heads.

"You can sit with us if you want!" Amarei offered cheerfully, Carbunkle curled up on the other side of Aurane.

"You don't have fleas do you Fluffy?" she asked, he let out a soft laugh.

"Nah." He rested his head on his paws, listening to the sisters talk as he almost dozed off. It was nice to curl up with someone again.

The next thing he knew, he was aware of a heavy weight on him, and something tickling his nose.

Aurane had climbed on him in her sleep, one paw over his ear, the other was flattened under her muzzle. Amarei was curled up with them as well, and it was her tail that tickled his nose.

"Hey, you two, I need to go hunt," he mumbled, Aurane only snuggled closer. Well alright. He wasn't that hungry yet.

The three kittens spent the day working the twolegs that came by, getting pets and scraps of food, enough that Carbunkle didn't really need to hunt.

He licked one paw and dragged it over his face, "so… these twolegs of yours, when did they leave you here?"

"They didn't leave us!" Amarei lashed her tail indignantly, "they had us in the car and opened the door, and Aurane ran out, and I didn't want to get left behind."

Well that was better than some cats Carbunkle had met, there was the one tom who still limped because his had thrown him out of the car.

"I didn't realize they wouldn't notice," Aurane wouldn't look at either her sister or Carbunkle, "they'll come back."

Carbunkle flicked his ears and didn't say anything in reply. They sat in silence, watching the road, he let out a quiet sigh.

"You sigh a lot," Amarei remarked, Carbunkle shrugged.

Aurane dropped into a crouch, "they say street cats are tough, and good fighters."

Carbunkle dropped down as well, ready for a good scuffle, "you wanna find out?"

"You're dead meat mate," she twitched her whiskers, and leapt at him.

Carbunkle spent the best afternoon of his life playing with them, after Aurane was soundly beaten, yes that is exactly how it happened, no she did not put up a good fight for a kitty-pet, Amarei had wanted a turn. Admittedly, Carbunkle had a bit of size on them, since they seemed to be about three moons apart in age.

He was laughing as the sisters pinned him down, Aurane nibbling on his ear, while Amarei kicked at his belly, when the sound of a car made them all look up.

It came around the corner and drove right past them, he could see both Aurane and Amarei droop.

"Come on guys, I'll get away," He tried to get the game going again, but Aurane stepped off him.

"They're not coming back are they," Amarei meowed quietly, Aurane said nothing, still staring at the empty street.

Carbunkle slowly rolled to his paws, and touched his nose to Aurane's ear, "I'm sorry."

"You knew didn't you?" It wasn't an accusation, just a question.

"Yeah," Carbunkle admitted, "this is where Twolegs come to drop cats they don't want." He glanced over at them, and added, "and neither of you have collars. They… they don't come looking for cats without collars."

They were both quiet, Aurane's head was bowed almost to her paws.

Finally it was Amarei who pulled herself up, shook out her fur and met his gaze, her blue eyes bright, "Well then you better teach us to live on the streets."

Aurane turned her head to look at him, hopeful but cautious.

"Well I can show you two my sleeping spot," he offered, "it's not far. Then we can work on hunting and fighting tomorrow."

"Thanks Fluffy," Aurane meowed, Carbunkle let out a sigh.

"I guess I should tell you, my name's Carbunkle."

The sisters stared at him for a few heartbeats, before Aurane burst out laughing.

"I think I like Fluffy better," she got to her paws, flicking her sister over the ears.

"We can think up better names!" Amarei looked excited, Carbunkle felt concerned. "Like Cornelius!"

"No." Both Aurane and Carbunkle spoke, in the same flat tone. They turned to each other, whiskers twitching, while Amarei frowned in thought.

"Did your twolegs leave you here?" Aurane asked, Carbunkle flattened his ears.

"How I got here really doesn't matter," he replied, "you find everyone out here is unwanted." By twolegs, by parents, by anyone.

Amarei pressed against his side, "well we want you!"

Carbunkle gently shoved her, and then her sister, "well I want you two as well."

And thus one became three.

/ / /

The three were practically inseprable, you'd have thought Carbunkle was their littermate, and if not for his size, he was pretty sure several of the city cats would have. The two had grown tough, Aurane was always ready to fight and had a tendency to win, and any opponent that underestimated Amarei for her seeming innocence was quickly surprised by how well she could take care of herself.

Carbunkle wouldn't trade them for anything in the world, they were the best of friends, better than even the littermates he had used to wish for.

He was currently on his back, lazily batting at Aurane's muzzle, while Amarei swipped at his swinging tail. The falling down twoleg house was hardly more than a corner now, but it offered enough shelter for three cats.

"We should go get some food, from that place with the chewy things." Aurane moved her head away from him, "it's got good meat, and that stuff's good."

Carbunkle frankly didn't know what the round, fluffy, brown things that Aurane loved so much were, but he was less inclined to eat them, "that's such a long walk, and they may not even be in the trash today."

"But they might be and they're so good…" Aurane licked her lips.

Amarei swatted at Carbunkle's tail, "you eat those all the time."

"Not all the time, but I've got a craving," Aurane ignored Carbunkle's paw as he kept missing her muzzle, "and I heard one of the twolegs call them pancakes I think so-"

"YOU RAT-HEARTED COWARDS!" Carbunkle's head collided with Aurane's jaw and both of them yelped.

Amarei's blue eyes were huge, "what was that?"

Carbunkle was on his paws, the sisters following after him, sure, Amarei stucked out against the grungy city streets but they weren't leaving her behind.

"Spineless hairy faced weaklings!" Whoever was yelling had quite the set of the lungs on them.

"You have got to be kidding me," Carbunkle breathed, he came to halt at the mouth of the alley, the sisters peered around him.

Sitting on the sidewalk, mouth open to yell another series of insults was a kitten. And Carbunkle meant a kitten, this was a scrap of fur, barely a moon old.

"You had better run 'cause I know where you live!" The black and white kitten howled, Carbunkle was almost intimidated, if only by how loud it was.

"We're keeping it," Aurane declared, the kitten turned to look at them. Carbunkle padded up, gently sniffing at it.

He almost got clawed across the muzzle for it, and let out a sigh.

"Shut up Buzz."

"I hope you're better at naming this one than me." He gently prodded the kit with a paw, "relax little one, we're gonna take care of you."

/ / /

Time had passed, as it does. Carbunkle lay in the sun, letting it soak into his fur, staring blankly at the grass poking up amongst the rubble of their house.

He felt like he was dying, like their should be a huge bleeding wound in his chest, but there wasn't. He was fine. He was here and fine, and alive and he want to yowl with grief until his voice gave out. He closed his eyes, and for a bit he could pretend that the sun's warmth was theirs.

"Hey, Storn."

He opened his eyes, and for a moment could only stare up at Reddian. They had gotten so big from the tiny scrap of fur yelling furious insults after their twolegs for abandoning them. He got to his paws, facing Amarei and Aurane. They all had grown, no longer kits or gangly adolescents but full grown. Amarei's fur had become sleek and lovely like she'd claimed all those moons ago. Her sister lifted her head and touched noses with Carbunkle, they pressed their muzzles together, letting him pull strength from her.

Time had passed, as it does. And Carbunkle had done something foolish, something he should've known better than to do. He'd fallen in love. But when he'd gotten so lucky with the three before him, how could he not help but to push his luck. But the city did what it always did, and it took. Leaving them back at four.

"We want to go to the mountains," Reddian explained, they gently headbutted Carbunkle's shoulder, "we've got a whole wide world out there, and I want to see it."

"And leave this city behind," Amarei agreed, she made a face, "I don't know what fresh air smells like anymore."

"You were born in this city like the rest of us, you never knew what fresh air smelled like," Aurane teased her sister, giving Carbunkle a friendly lick on the ear, "but what do you say?"

Carbunkle swallowed, and slowly smiled, "how could I let my family leave me behind?" He asked. The city was where he'd been born, and where he'd found his family. It had great memories. But they were right, they couldn't stay here. Not where he'd lost so much. Carbunkle had to… he had to go. To move on.

The four gazed to the horizon, where the mountains waited and beckoned.

* * *

For Rowan. The backstory for Carbunkle, Aurane, Amarei, and Reddian, four characters from her AMAZING fic "From the Ashes".


End file.
